Too Much Fat And Sugar Damages Your Brain

A doughnut—the perfect storm of fat and
sugar—may be the worst option at the breakfast bar, not just for your
body, but also for your brain, suggests new research
from Oregon State University.

A high-fat and high-sugar diet led to
decreased cognitive functioning in mice, the researchers found.
Surprisingly, these changes in the brain appear to be mediated through
the gut bacteria, a connection known as the gut-brain axis.

Mice
in the study were fed either a high-fat and high-sugar diet or a normal
diet. Those on the fatty/sugary diet saw a shift in gut bacteria that
was linked to a loss of cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt to
changing situations) and short- and long-term memory.

Kathy Magnusson, PhD, principal investigator and professor of
biomedical sciences at Oregon State University, describes cognitive
flexibility in terms of driving home from work. When your normal route
is suddenly closed for construction, if you have high cognitive
flexibility, you can figure out quickly the best alternative route (and
remember in the morning to also follow the detour rather than attempt go
your usual way).

"It's increasingly clear that our gut bacteria, or microbiota,
can communicate with the human brain," said Magnusson. "Bacteria can
release compounds that act as neurotransmitters, stimulate sensory
nerves or the immune system, and affect a wide range of biological
functions."

This connection between the brain and the gut is
called the gut-brain axis, and it's a two-way street: Not only does the
brain send messages to the gut, but the gut also sends messages to the
brain.

Gerard Mullin, MD, an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the author of The Gut Balance Revolution, explains
that the gut talks to the brain, influencing your mood (including
depression and anxiety), attention (including attention deficit
disorders), and even neurodegenerative disease processes (such as those
involved in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's).

On an ongoing basis, hormones from the gut impact the appetite
control centers of the brain, but bacterial shifts can hurt your
health.

"When there's an imbalance in your gut bacteria, that is going
to create shifts in your expression of gut hormones," says Dr. Mullin.
"It'll cause the gut lining to become more permeable.

That will allow
the bacterial toxins to disseminate and cause an inflammatory reaction,
which can affect brain function adversely." (Intestinal permeability is
also commonly known as "leaky gut.")
"Many
years ago, naturopaths and holistically oriented doctors understood
that bacterial imbalances were problematic," he says.

"They knew that to
get healthy you had to rebalance the gut bacteria. But modern science,
which is very pill oriented, has been proactively dismissive of these
things and felt it was predicated on quackery. Now the evidence is so
overwhelming, and more and more people appreciate it."

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That is really a shocking news for me. I had been told that the sugar can be very helpful to our brain. And the fat can make you obese. And now I am informed that the fat and sugar will destroy my brain??